azontr
He/Him- 39,779
- 49,791
A little story excerpt I wrote:
The beginning of the journey upward is arduous. Taking the first step, weight unimaginable is pressed upon one's shoulder. One will carry it without collapsing... further above the Abyss that lay dormant.
Broken bodies from beneath will rise from the immensity that lay below. They crackle and break, as if made of hardened sand. They scream, clamor, and beg for release that cannot be granted... a release that it is unlikely that they would even deserve. Ignoring their whispers... one must continue to climb the stairs.
"What is it that you desire?"
They will be asked the questions. The questions that fill their head, as if a knife had pierced their brain and forced these thoughts within...
"Do you desire a miracle?"
The questions twist and melt the body from the inside out. The blood congeals into thick branches from within the inside, protruding through the flesh, weighing down the body.
"Do you desire to fulfill a dream?"
The branches are alive. They fill you only with the questions. The branches twist and morph into grotesque shapes. Organs, ruptured beyond pair. Bones become brittle like a cracker, breaking with each step higher.
"Is it your dream..."
They will crawl through you like maggots. Tearing up your throat, ripping through the flesh of your neck... your nails break as the branches splinter through your fingers, replacing the bones. The question must be asked. The question must be answered.
"...to annihilate all of us?"
One can only climb with the intent to fulfill a desire. To make a dream that was thought impossible come true. The question left unanswered comes the body from the inside out... piercing through you from above and below, the branches fester. The limbs are rotten, dysfunctional. The mind is rotting, on the precipice of the same fate.
Eventually, the top will be reached. The branches have already pierced through the eyes, but one can still see. The mouth has been torn open, the jaw barely hanging to the head by strings of nerve and muscle... but one can still talk. You can still feel, with the questions filling your broken brain. Still hear the hollow screeching of the surrounding Abyss, attempting to break you further.
The only that lay in front of thee is an impossible being. Blackened feathers wrap around this entity... allowing only the light of its gaze to fill your form with uncontrollable emotion. The ember flickers in front of you. The scarlet ember.
"Are you capable of paying the price for your dream?"
The ember approaches you, flickering in and out of reality in front of you. It burns... making what's left of your flesh bubble and boil. It is speaking to you. It beckons you to declare yourself.
But... you do not know.
One can only speak with what little strength they can muster. Rage pushes you forward, controlling the contorted flesh and puppeting you like a doll on strings.
"I... have nothing left. I don't have anything to give you."
The ember answers this decree, as you grasp it within hand, clenching your fist. It burns. It burns. And all you can do is scream, and shout. The questions, left unanswered, have pinned you to the floor... leaving your body wrought with pain.
Agony escapes from your throat. The ember explodes, burning away all the questions... all the doubts, all the belief. And it just burns. It burns away the skin, making it brittle. Blood is turned to ash, and only fire remains, flowing in replacement of your blood. And you can only scream.
"All things in this world... come with a price. There is no exception."
The irrefutable law burns you even further into the Abyss.
"And to a flame that consumes all things... there is no reason... that it's owner should be an exception."
No man, no matter how strong-willed, could endure it. They could only linger, writhe in pain as the fire tear them to shreds. It consumed sight long ago, making you unable to see anything but the fire... and words could barely be formed. But you would speak.
"My... w... i...sh..."
"How is it that you do not see it?"
"My... wish...!"
Before you can finally answer the question, everything goes black. The world around has been consumed by a fire. The fire soon runs out to burn, and becomes nothing more than a fickle ember once more. And like all things, the ember would soon...
...extinguish.
A preamble to a story concept I'm working on, you could say.
I have been thinking for a bit about the concept of "blessings" as a Power System, for a few days I think. Taking some inspiration from a few novels and comics, this is how I was thinking it would work within my setting:
- Shrines: There are various monuments erected across the world, representing major deities or demons within the world's lore. Cities and kingdoms are built around these shrines to monopolize the supernatural properties of the shrines. Each shrine has a different set of passive abilities, some negative and some positive.
- Miracles: It is possible to obtain a unique ability known as a "Miracle" through praying to these shrines. There are infinite Miracles that can be gained depending on what shrine is prayed to. What decides who gets a Miracle is usually random, but personal faith can influence this. Most Miracles gained are generally useless in actual combat... mostly being something such as being able to walk on water, talk to animals, levitate the tiniest bit above the ground, etc. Those with luck, a connection to a God or deity, or extreme amounts of faith can potentially gain powerful, world-altering Miracles.
- Dreams: A different subset of abilities that one is born with. Unlike Miracles, a "Dream" can only be gained at birth, and there are a limited number of existing Dreams, though they are quite numerous. Not all Dreams are useful in combat, but they are usually something more esoteric than a Miracle, and have a cost to be used that the user must pay, whether big or small.